Natural History Museum

Adaption and evolution played a fitting part in lighting the Darwin Centre, phase 2, the newest addition to one of the UK’s biggest tourist attractions. The award-winning building by Danish architect CF Møller and housing millions of exhibits, presented a complex challenge to lighting designer Sutton Vane Associates, whose task included maintaining a consistent aesthetic across the exhibition areas while improving on the base-build lighting and enhancing the visitor experience.

The practice specified Precision Lighting’s Microspot C16 luminaire in black, which was then integrated a custom baffle to remove any light spill from the rear. Different arm lengths were designed to fit into four types of base plates: two standard and two custom-made. All the luminaires were fitted with a short snoot for glare control, and many were supplied with a self-dimming transformer with local potentiometer.